Career
He was the older brother of colonial administrator Eric John Eagles Swayne. The elder Swayne wrote several popular works in his lifetime, including Seventeen Trips Through Somaliland and a Visit to Abyssinia, which ran into several editions, and Through the Highlands of Siberia. He was a frequent contributor to publications about African wildlife, including the volume Great and Small Game of Africa, edited by the prominent naturalist Henry Bryden.
A noted big game hunter, the Swayne"s hartebeest and Swayne"s Dik-dik were named after him.